The Ritual of Sunday Roast
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Sea Salt Rib Roast with all the trimmings: Thousand- Layer Duck Fat Potatoes, Braised Red Cabbage with Red Currant Jelly, and Three-Cheese Cauliflower- Gratin. See pp. 89–90 for recipes. ANYA N Y GIVENG I V E N S U N DAYD AY London chefs pay tribute to the ultimate home-cooked meal: the Sunday roast. BY JAY CHESHES FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY BY LOCATION PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTOR PROTASIO SIMON WATSON FEBRUARY 2019 83 FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 82 12142018124818 12/14/18 12:44 PM FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 83 12142018123500 12/14/18 12:33 PM NO MEAL IS MORE BELOVED BY BRITS THAN THE SUNDAY ROAST. The classic meal is a gray-weather-soothing, all-day-eating, then veg- on-the-couch-in-a-food-coma affair (think Thanksgiving, if it came once a week), and the communing around slabs of roast meat is a remarkably sturdy tradition—one that’s survived mad cow disease and the new appreciation in Britain for healthy (even vegan) eating and remains a nostalgic bulwark against the spread of American-style brunch. “What’s brunch?” says chef and roast fanatic James Knappett of London’s Bubbledogs and Kitchen Table restaurants. “A bit of granola and a poached egg? What’s the point? Let’s get something proper to eat.” Knappett and I are among 200 or so hardy diners attending what’s advertised as the ultimate gluttonous Sunday roast on an unseasonably warm Monday night in the spring. It was scheduled for Sunday originally, but a last-minute change in venue bumped The Great Roast, as the banquet’s being heralded, forward a night. The festivities kick off with cocktails outside Royal Hospital Chelsea’s Great Hall in West London at 6 p.m. Like any truly great Sunday roast, The Great Roast promises to kill us with excess. That its 14 courses are from some of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary chefs, cooking alongside award-winning European colleagues from across the continent, helped this marathon meat fest sell out fast. By 8 p.m., we’re gathered at long wooden tables enjoying a family- style feast. Regimental banners from bygone British wars dangle overhead like house flags at Hogwarts. Simon Rogan of two-Michelin-starred L’Enclume in England’s Lake District sends out big platters of dry-aged roast duck. Stephen Harris of The Sportsman in Kent, the country’s most acclaimed country pub, offers roast pork loin with crisp crackling. There’s lamb neck from Dutch chef Jonnie Boer, spicy chicken from Sweden’s Björn Frantzén, and potato salad with baby shrimp from Belgium’s Kobe Desramaults. Three hours in, antique silver trolleys arrive with the main event: giant blistered haunches of roast British beef, carved tableside by the London chefs who prepared them, Knappett and Shaun Searley of The Quality Chop House. The two are best mates who spend their Sundays off cooking meat together. Their final savory course comes with Yorkshire pudding and roast potato “trimmings,” as well as an extravagant, creamy morel mushroom gravy. Despite the international mix in the kitchen, it’s an elementally British evening, built on generosity and conviviality and copious amounts of good food and drink. Former music executive Steve Plotnicki, who organized the dinner in lieu of an awards show for his Opinionated Stalwart and true, a carved About Dining European restaurant survey, puts it best: “What could be Sea Salt Rib Roast stands ready for serving with Morel Cream more British than a Sunday roast?” Gravy. See pp. 90–91 for recipes. 84 FEBRUARY 2019 FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 84 12142018123500 12/14/18 12:33 PM FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 85 12142018123501 12/14/18 12:33 PM 5 Great ACROSS LONDON, the Sunday roast is a class leveler enjoyed Sunday Roasts by every demographic, from Mayfair mansions to council estate flats. in London Though best eaten at home, it’s also long been the purview of the neighborhood pub. “People love on Sunday to go for a long walk in the BLACKLOCK country and end up at a pub having a roast by the fire,” says chef Merlin Blacklock’s spot in Soho Labron-Johnson, formerly of London’s Portland restaurant, who serves London’s most popular Sunday roast, drawing a contributed an eel and beet starter to The Great Roast. crowd for its heaping platters The roast became a democratized British birthright starting in the of charcoal-roasted beef, 19th century, according to food historian Ivan Day, as the cost of meat lamb, or pork. The “All In” and fuel began to plummet. “Suddenly, ordinary working people could features three meats piled high with all the trimmings, roast meat using this new cheap fuel—coal—and the day when they stop along with a bubbling crock of working, on a Sunday, would become the time for it,” he says. cheesy cauliflower. Book in For most Brits, the Sunday roast remains about family first, which is advance. (From $21 per why even the most meager versions still have emotional resonance. “If person, theblacklock.com) you go and see your nan and she’s managed to put together a roast THE QUALITY CHOP HOUSE dinner, and the Yorkshires are frozen, and the veg is frozen, there’s still Shaun Searley’s rustic tavern something about it,” says Knappett. “You’re like, this is right; this is serves one of the city’s most good. There’s so much nostalgia to that meal.” elevated beef roasts, always Though its makeup can vary widely, the quintessential roast dinner pairing two cuts from the revolves around a big piece of well-marbled beef, ideally roasted on the whole cows that come into its attached butcher shop—one bone until it’s crisp around the edges and still pink inside. A love for slow-braised, the other butter- roast beef runs at the historic heart of British culture. “The roast beef of roasted. Don’t miss the justly old England became a symbol of British power, of patriotism,” says Day. famous thousand-layer confit “Across the Channel, the French took the potatoes. (From $38 per person, thequalitychophouse piss out of us and called us les rosbifs as a .com) kind of joke, but hidden in that is a certain amount of respect for the fact that our meat THE DRAPERS ARMS was much better, and we knew how to cook “PEOPLE LOVE For the classic pub roast it really well.” experience, head to this CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: And you can’t have roast beef without ON SUNDAY TO bright, bustling, duplex boozer Chef Shaun Searley at The in Islington, packed with Yorkshire pudding. Many Brits judge their Quality Chop House; The GO FOR A LONG rambunctious groups at big Colony Grill Room; Sunday Sunday roasts by the size of those puffy wooden tables whiling away roast fan and chef James popovers, like mini soufflés, made from a hours tackling endless pints Knappett; The Drapers Arms simple batter of milk, flour, and eggs cooked WALK IN THE of ale and homestyle platters of meat. (From $25 per in molds filled with sizzling fat. “It would COUNTRY AND person, thedrapersarms.com) be met with a riot if there wasn’t Yorkshire pudding in our house,” says Rogan. The END UP AT A PUB THE COLONY GRILL ROOM batter, ideally, should be made a day ahead, This nostalgic, clubby Mayfair according to Paul Weaver of London’s Noble restaurant is an exceptionally HAVING A ROAST civilized spot to enjoy a Rot restaurant, who prepared the Yorkies Sunday roast—and a great (as they’re sometimes known) that were BY THE FIRE.” option for carnivores stuck served with The Great Roast’s beef. “It needs dining with non-meat-eating time to develop flavor and structure.” And friends. The sprawling Anglo- American menu features a they should crisp as they rise but remain top-notch brunch section as soft in the middle. “The pudding part is well. (From $38 per person, important,” says Searley, “the contrast of two textures.” colonygrillroom.com) From the finest hotels to the edgiest gastropubs in London, the Sunday BRIGADIERS roast is surging in popularity as a restaurant meal (find one to try with Siblings Karam, Sunaina, and “5 Great Sunday Roasts in London,” at right). But even the most Jyotin Sethi opened this Anglo- ambitious chefs rarely fiddle with the classic formula. On a recent roast Indian hot spot. Its Sunday tour through the city, the beef—whether individually plated or on big, roast, an enormous family- pass-around platters—always came with Yorkshire pudding and golden style feast, pairs masala- rubbed tandoori-cooked rib potatoes cooked in duck or goose fat, with meaty gravy and horseradish eye with breads, chutneys, cream for spooning on top. and free-flowing cocktails. “When I think of Sunday roast, I think of family, sharing, being happy,” (From $39 per person, says Labron-Johnson. “People don’t mess around with it. You won’t chef brigadierslondon.com) it up too much.” 86 FEBRUARY 2019 FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 86 12142018123501 12/14/18 12:33 PM FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 87 12142018123501 12/14/18 12:33 PM Three-Cheese on a baking sheet lined with tender and translucent, 10 to 1/2 cup duck fat, melted Cauliflower Gratin paper towels; set aside. 12 minutes. Add cabbage, and 1 Tbsp. plus 11/2 tsp. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: cook, stirring often, until kosher salt, divided Beef Tallow–Baked York- ACTIVE 35 MIN; TOTAL 55 MIN 2. Melt 2/3 cup butter in a large slightly wilted, 5 to 7 minutes. shire Pudding, Three- SERVES 12 saucepan over medium.